Vivian Nathan

Vivian Nathan was an actress and original member of the Actors Studio, where she later went on to teach.

The studio was founded in 1947 by Lee Strasberg, Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, among others. She worked as a session moderator and teacher and developed a close mentoring relationship with actress Kim Stanley. Nathan served on the studio’s board of directors until 1999, with Ellen Burstyn, Estelle Parsons, Paul Newman, Lee Grant and Al Pacino.

She also appeared on television in such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kojak and The Equalizer. Her favorite appearances, however, were in live television productions, including roles on Studio One in Hollywood and Playhouse 90. Her most notable film appearances were in Teacher’s Pet, The Young Savages, The Outsider and Klute, with Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda (who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance), in which she played Fonda’s character’s psychologist.

Nathan also worked extensively on Broadway, making her debut with the play Sundown Beach, directed by Elia Kazan. She was also in Tennessee Williams’s first plays, including The Rose Tattoo and Camino Real, Alan Schneider’s Anastasia, and Arthur Penn’s Golda, with Anne Bancroft.

Nathan died April 3, 2015, in Englewood, New Jersey. She was 98.